Kaiser Gill is pleased to announce the opening of his first restaurant venture in the nation’s capital, Noelia Italian Kitchen, at 1319 F St. NW in Washington, D.C. The 6,000 square-foot restaurant was formerly home to Finemondo.
Noelia Italian Kitchen will receive a remodeling refresh and begin serviceWednesday, June 7, for lunch and dinner service. Gill has tapped Carmen Gianna Piazza to be the executive chef of his modern Italian restaurant. Piazza spent 22 years living, studying, and cooking in Italy, owning her own restaurant for four years, before selling it to move to the U.S. Washingtonians have experienced her cooking at Café Milano, where she worked for 3 years from 2000 through 2003.
Piazza next served as executive chef of Sette Osteria in Dupont Circle for three years before moving to Extra Virgin Modern Italian Cuisine for over three years. She has also served as a consultant specializing in Italian menu development for Famoso and M Café in Bethesda.
In addition to upscale casual dining, Noelia Italian Kitchen will also showcase a 1,400-square-foot dance floor which will come to life on Friday and Saturday nights from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. for those who enjoy some fun after dinner. Guests can anticipate a rotating list of DJs and live musicians for the late night dancing.
“I am opening Noelia Italian Kitchen because it is the kind of place I like to go for dinner and dancing with my wife, which I believe is missing in this area of downtown Washington,” says Kaiser Gill, owner. “We want to present an inviting restaurant with good food, Italian being my favorite, that is well priced and a great place to meet for lunch and dinner. The design of the restaurant affords me the opportunity to add two private dining rooms. The larger can accommodate a dinner party for 30 guests and the smaller one comfortably seats 14. Then the dance floor and bar gives us a nice setting for late night fun.”
Gill comes from a family of restaurateurs. Gill grew up in and around the restaurants helping with daily operations. He eventually wanted to follow in his family's footsteps, but temporarily put his dreams on hold, and upon graduating from the College of William and Mary, Gill was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army. Here his primary duties consisted of coordinating, planning, and managing the security of key military personnel and facilities within the Washington D.C. area, including the White House and the Pentagon.
Gill effectively executed emergency management plans during the attack on the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and subsequently received several military commendations for outstanding performance and leadership. He was also deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of Operation Joint Guard, and was sent overseas in support of a peacekeeping operation for approximately a year.
After his service, Kaiser transitioned to the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a special agent assigned to the counterterrorism division of the New York office. He supervised, managed, and conducted several sensitive and complex investigations, and received the United States Department of Justice’s highest award for employee performance, the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service.
Upon his exit from the FBI, Gill became a senior executive and headed the Washington, D.C., office for a premiere defense contractor. Here, his leadership, attention to detail, and work ethic led to the company’s highest revenue margins in over 20 years. Then in 2012, Kaiser became partner and served as the chief operating officer in a start-up medical services company where he grew it from one client with revenue less than $500,000 to six clients with revenue of more than $5 million.
Gill has more than 15 years of experience in management within the corporate and government sector and has honed his communication and organizational skills, as well as developing many close relationships with federal, state, local and international policymakers. The time has finally come for Gill to pursue his dream of owning his own restaurant.
